MMW was privy to an advance look at Strategy Analytics’ new Wireless Operator Strategies (WOS) service report, which estimates that tablets with mobile broadband subscriptions using 3G and …

MMW was privy to an advance look at Strategy Analytics’ new Wireless Operator Strategies (WOS) service report, which estimates that tablets with mobile broadband subscriptions using 3G and 4G LTE will grow more than five times in the next five years.

All told, tablets will reach nearly 250 million people in 2018 at a global level.

“In emerging markets, operators are seeing some success using their own-branded tablets to drive up the total addressable market for 3G / 4G tablets,” says Phil Kendall, Executive Director of Wireless Operator Strategies. “We are also seeing more ‘comes with data’ models where device purchase includes a free monthly data allowance, such as HP’s DataPass”

Other tablet tidbits gleaned from the report include:

247 million tablet subscriptions by 2018, up from 45 million in 2013

Attach rates only 45% of tablets with embedded mobile connectivity, had a data plan in 2013, which means only 10% of all tablets had a direct mobile broadband connection (excluding Wi-Fi connections via tethering).

Biggest growth is in LTE: LTE will account for 92.4% of all tablet subscriptions by the end of 2018, overtaking 3G

US wireless market growth: the US will add 50 million tablet subscriptions in the next five years; Verizon Wireless, Sprint and AT&T combined added nearly 1.5 million tablet subscriptions in Q1 2014.

Revenue and data traffic impact: Tablets will contribute $26 billion to operator service revenues and generate over five million Terabytes of mobile data traffic in 2018.